Tom Lasley, the man who helped introduce Portland to Elvis,
Madonna, the Beatles and Alice Cooper, died suddenly Friday night. He was 65.

Lasley, who grew up in Eugene before becoming Portland's major
entertainment ticket vendor, started his career early. As a freshman at Southern Oregon University, he
arranged the Grateful Dead's first appearance in Oregon.

"They drove up in their old yellow school bus," Case said. "That's
before anybody had heard of them. How
Tom had the connection to know who they were, I have no idea."

After college, Lasley moved to Portland and made a small
fortune as Oregon's Ticketmaster franchise owner, before the corporation began
operating its own outlets across the nation.
By his mid-20s, Lasley was handling ticketing for every major musical
act to play Portland during the glory days of touring rock and roll. He sold
tickets to everything from Pink Floyd to Disney on Ice.

Despite his social career, Lasley was a low-key
family man at heart. He met his wife, Marcy Lasley, in the 1973, as business was booming. She was a teller at the bank where he did business. While all the
other tellers rushed out the door on Friday afternoons to start their weekends,
Marcy waited on Tom.

"One time he said, 'You're so nice to me, I should take you
to dinner,'" Marcy Lasley said Saturday evening.

The pair was married six months later. They went on to have
two sons, Rian and Cameron. Marcy tells stories of Rian playing the drums
onstage with The Who during sound check. Cameron, who has downs syndrome, grew
up to be a rap artist. The Oregonian profiled him in 2010.

"There's no perfect guy, but I think he was so close, you
could almost call it that," Marcy Lasley said.

About a decade ago, Lasley sold his franchise to
Ticketmaster. His life didn't slow down, though. Without near-nightly events to
keep him busy, Lasley threw himself into other pursuits.

He joined Providence as a director in the regional shared
services department. He was also a major donor, contributing money to multiple
Providence programs, including one to make chaplains available to patients.

"Tom's presence was felt here in so many ways," said Dave Underriner,
chief executive for Providence in Oregon. "He was constantly thinking of new
approaches for those of us in health care to reach out to people in different
ways."

As an original investor in Portland Family Entertainment,
the company that owned the Portland Beavers baseball team, Lasley stepped in as
the team's interim president in 2004. He
also served on the board of directors for two therapy dog organizations – Pet
Partners and Angel On A Leash.

David Frei, a friend of Lasley's since childhood and founder
of Angel On A Leash, said Lasley took great pride in his therapy dog, Alain. He
could often be found in the halls of Providence Portland Medical Center,
introducing Alain to patients and their families. Once, a patient who had been
unable to speak after a major heart problem whispered his first words to Lasley:
"More dog."

"It was a moment that meant a lot to Tom," Frei said.
"There'll be a lot of Tom Lasley stories like that at the memorial service.
That's the kind of guy he was."